This is a beautiful land. The panoramic hills and valleys, the inimitable white stones, the kedushah embedded in every meter, the spicy melting pot of Jews. It fills the soul in a way nothing else can.

This is not to say the Palestinians are blameless or justified in the ongoing conflict – far from it – but we are the ones with the power and our government has managed to destroy any hope on either side for a solution.

Insisting on a traditional Jewish home, Freida Sima reached a compromise with her communist husband: he would not interfere in household matters of religion while she would turn a blind eye to whatever he would do outside the home.

After several dates, when she sensed the “chicken killer” was about to propose, my grandmother beat a hasty retreat, remarking to her aunts that one day longer with him and she would have become a vegetarian.

At a time when many Jews changed their names and joined churches to deflect anti-Semitism and to facilitate assimilation into American society, Isidor did not deny his heritage; indeed, he embraced it.